The Cry of the Fishmonger: Rounds and Rounds
The Sharks dispatched the Mustard Men in 5 games, which makes the series seem a lot less close than it was. 3 of the games were decided by one goal, with Game 1 in double overtime. Even Game 2, the Predators 5-2 win, was not decided until late in the 3rd period. Nashville's undisciplined play (they led all playoff teams with almost 30 minutes of penalties per game) was their undoing, even though the Sharks power play was more or less ineffective, and often frankly ugly to watch. But it was one more way to wear down the Nashville defenders, and keep their skill players on the bench. Patrick Marleau again scored some big goals, and Joe Thornton took the first step toward erasing his playoff-choker reputation with dominating play and 6 points in the series.
Nashville wasn't the only team to distinguish itself with dirty play in this year's playoffs. The Calgary Flames managed to steal the spotlight by having their backup goalie come in to play lumberjack to the Detroit Red Wings Johan Franzen's, umm, old growth redwood late in Game 5 of their series (Franzen, fittingly, scored the series winner in Game 6). Then the Flames' Jarome Iginla and Daymond Langkow got in the act late in the game (cross-checking plus slashing and sucker-punching, respectively). Classy. Brad May of the Anaheim Ducks got a 3 game suspension for sucker-punching the back of Minnesota Wild defenseman Kim Johnsson (who is both emphatically not a pugilist, and happened to be Minnesota's best D man), which then caused a multi-player dust-up between the Ducks and Wild during the *pre-game skate* of Game 5 in their series.
By Ian, contributing
We here at Fishmonger Central think the NHL's brass needs to address the extreme disparity between punishment of these kinds of offenses in the playoffs versus the regular season. Chris Simon got 20 games for his Paul Bunyan act during the regular season, but Jamie McLennan's slash only got 5 games. Sucker punching should be an automatic double-digit suspension, whether it happens in November or April. Oh, and fine the coach *and* general manager automatically when these type of infractions occur. Maybe it will make tough-guy- loving GMs like Darryl Sutter and Brian Burke think twice before employing NHL players who are mainly on the roster to intimidate the opposition, and make coaches reconsider sending players into a game to "send a message."
With that ugliness out of the way, here's how the Fishmonger Predict- O-Meter did in the first round.
Sharks vs. Predators
-Predict-O-Meter said: San Jose in 6
-Actual result: San Jose in 5
Red Wings vs. Flames
-Predict-O-Meter said: Detroit in 6
-Actual result: Detroit in 6
Ducks vs. Wild
-Predict-O-Meter said: Anaheim in 5
-Actual result: Anaheim in 5
Canucks vs. Stars
-Predict-O-Meter said: Vancouver in 6
-Actual result: Vancouver in 7
Donald Trumps vs. Islanders
-Predict-O-Meter said: Buffalo in 5
-Actual result: Buffalo in 5
El Diablo vs. Lightning
-Predict-O-Meter said: New Jersey in 6
-Actual result: New Jersey in 6
Thrashers vs. Rangers
-Predict-O-Meter said: Atlanta in 7
-Actual result: New York in 4 (ouch)
Senators vs. Penguins
-Predict-O-Meter said: Answer unclear, ask again later
-Actual result: Ottawa in 5
Fishmonger Labs is working hard to fix the bugs in the Predict-O- Meter's Eastern Conference module before the next round, but 6 out of 8 ain't bad